learnin' and livin' the ways of organic farmin'

Name That Milk.

I might be the only vegan in town which is no surprise since most people here raise animals for their milk and eggs. Jasmine, the momma goat, is the resident milk producer, giving about 4 L of milk a day! That’s a whole lot of milk.

Though this is the freshest goat milk I could ever have, I still opt for plant based milks because they have little to no saturated fat and they are cholesterol free! If you are interested in the nutritional profiles of various milks, check out these wonderful charts.

I prefer homemade almond milk or oat milk over store bought since it’s cheaper and fun to make.

Almond, oat or goat? Can you guess which is which? A virtual high-five goes out to the first person who can guess correctly.

This morning I made almond milk and oat milk in the blender. The latter requires less time, but the former is more delicious, in my opinion.

To make almond milk, soak 1 cup of raw almonds in water for two days. If you don’t want to wait that long, then soak them overnight. The water gets a little slimy, so you might want to change the water after a day. After soaking, peel off the skins and blend them in 4 cups of water. If you like it sweet, then add one of the following sweeteners – maple syrup, agave, or cinnamon.

Oat milk requires less work. I got the recipe off of this wonderful blog. All you need is a 1/2 cup of oats (any kind) and 1 cup of water. Soak the oats in the blender for 20 minutes, then blend for a few minutes….and DONE!

Both milks, however are grainy, but you can remedy that with a nut milk bag, which I just learned about today. I love the internet!

Oat milk was a recent discovery, and an amazing one since it is much cheaper to make than almond milk. The farmers use the goats milk for a number of things; drinking, making kefir and cheese, and one day soap!

My husband has been lobbying for a goat. I’ve been making soap for years now, and that is his strongest argument for it. I think it would be cool, for the soap, and to drink, I understand there is no taste difference between cow & goat milk. It’s the space requirements that have me a bit concerned. I’ve no fenced area, and the chickens are already helping themselves to the garden. I can imagine what a goat would do!

I knew it! I would come home one day to a perfectly clipped lawn, and a completely empty garden! I make all kinds of soaps. Always vegetable-based, Mostly castile ( oilve oil-based), sometimes vegetable oil-based. All kinds of scents. I would love to make goats milk soap. I’m just not sure I want the work of the goat that much!

When I first started looking around, I found this site:http://www.thesage.com/ they have all kinds of info, recipes and more. A good book is this one:Milk-Based Soaps Making Natural, Skin Nourishing Soap by Casey Makela
There is a 4H club in the next town over. The kids all learned to make soap as a project. it was so popular, it became a business. Do let me know how you make out with it. I’d love to hear.